cy twombly - sculptures 1992-2005
TRANSCRIPT
1 rC( (1 7(-11
CYTWOMBLY SCULPTURES 1992-2005
Essays by Giorgio Agamben Edward Albee
Reinhold Baumstark and Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Photographs by Jochen Littkemann
La urenz Ben~es-aJL-oLshy
f1rf11tIDfIl~lg
~~~
ALTE PINAKOTHEK NIUNCHEN
in cooperation with
SCHIRNIERINIOSEL
111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111
17231359
Pub lished on the occasio n or lhe exhibirion
e y Twombly in del Alren Pinakorhek - Sklil pruren
5 April 2006 - 30 Jul y 2006
Alre Pinako rh ek Munich
EX HIBITI ON
co CE PT ~ l) REALI ZATION
Reinhold Baumstark Carla Schulz-HoffmlI1n Paul Winkler
SUPE RVISION OF CO ltS FRVAT ION
Erich GamzCfI- JSLr illo
CATALOG
P UBLIS H ED BY
Baye rische Sraarsgemaldesam mlungen
1 110 rOGRAPHS
Jochen Lirckemann Berlin pp 17-19 2 1 23 25 2729- 3 1 33 Yi middot37
39414345 47 49 ~ 1 53 55 ~7-~9 6 1 63 65- 67 69 7 1 73 75
77798 1- 87 899 19395 cover illustratio n (Un titled 200 1 detail)
Laurenz Berges O(isseldort pp 70111-129 140-141
Udo Brandhorsr pp1 30 132 135- 138
Cagosian Callery cw Yo rk p 97
TRA middotSIATIO 5
Jeremy (aincs (Schulz-HoFFmann Baulllsruk)
Sarah Moore (Agamben)
copy 2006 Pinakolhck Munich and SchirmerMosel Mun ich
For th e sculptures copy 2006 by Cy TVomb ly
This work is prorected by copyrighr in who le and in parr Th e reproduction
or communi utio l1 of this wo rk in any Form or by any me[) wirhour prior
permission from th e pub lisher is ilegal and punishabl e This l l llilt to all ac rs
of ut in particu lar such as rhe reproducrion of ICXl and pi crures rhcir
performance and demonstrarion rran slation filming microfilming broadcasting
storage and procCs in g in electronic media InFringemen ts will be prosecuted
DE SIGN Sch irmerMose l Atelier
LITH OGRAP HY lovaConcepr Berlin
TYP ES IN G Fotosarz Huber Munchen
PRI N T G IIlt D BINDING Passavia PaSSJlI
ISBN 10 J -R29G-0245-6
ISUN 13 978-3-82-02 ) -7
A Schirmer 1osel Produ rion
wwwschirmfr-moselcom
CONTENTS
PREFA C
Reinhold Baumstark
7
CYTWO MBLY
Edward Albee
9
FALLIN G BEAUTY
Giorgio Agamben
13
SCULPTURES
17
T O FEEL ALL THIN GS IN ALL WAYS
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
99
PICT URES AT AN EXHIBITION
II I
JOURNEY T O LEXINGTON
Reinhold Baumstark
13 1
LIST OF OBJECTS
142
BIBLIOGRAPHY
144
PREFACE Reinhold Baumstar~
The fac t that the works of contemporary sculptor Cy Twombly are on show in the Alte
Pinalltothek and that the public can now view sculptures never before shown in our Old
Masters treasury is an appropriate way to honor and recognize this great American artist
who has long since found his way to Europe in his life and work Although they were
created on ly recen tly his sculptures partake of that age-old quest to express absolute
beau ty The force of his sym bols the sensuousness brought to life by h is shaping hand
and the weigh tlessness of the color white shel teri ng the banal objets trouves and
ennObling them with an aura of timelessness All th is serves to place his scul ptures on an
qual plane with the ach ievements of the O ld M asters Thei r vicinity was sought by Cy
Twombly throughout his career H e is familiar with Raphael and Poussin (who both
like him chose to live in Rome) has fo und inspiration in Hieronymus Bosch and has
closely studied the colors of the Flem ish pain ters Therefore in the Alte Pinakothek his
sculptures encounter companio ns and enter into a d ialog with them as equals Sincere
thanks are due [Q th e artist for allowing th is important part of his recent work [Q debut
not in cen ters of contemporary art but at M unichs Al te Pi nakothek and for having the
sculptures come here as personal loans from his private collection From the outset Cy
Twombly has warmly supported the p roj ect His encouragemen t and trust and our
meetings with him were and remain experiences that have come to be- like the objets
trouves in his sculptures-las ting treasures
We have two individuals to thank for bringing Cy Twombly to Munich Very early on
they understood the importance of his art One of them is Heiner Friedrich who comshy
missioned works in 1964 and showed them in his Munich gallery at Maximilianstrasse
under the tide The artist in the northern climate Later Udo Brandhorst by deciding
to bring his highly distinguished collection of contemporary art to Munich initiated a
project of great consequence to the long-term reception of Cy Twomblys art As early as
1966 co llectors Anette and U do Bran d horst had brought together with farsighted
knowledge and passion a great num ber of Cy Twomblys works In recent years the colshy
lection was thoughtfully en larged with an eye to the present cons truction of the
Museum Brand hors t next to the Pinako thek der Moderne culminating in the acquisishy
7
tio n of a late masterwork of this artist the 12-part Lepanto series which had already
been exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in 2002 In the future the Brandhorst Museum
in Munich will be the most important place-after the Menil Collection in Houstonshy
for studying Cy Twomblys art Udo Brandhorst was moreover the initiator for the proshy
ject of presenting the sculptures at the Alte Pinakothek and he has actively supported
this undertaking I warmly thank him for showing us into the artists studio for includshy
ing us in his friendship with the artist and for bringing his enthusiasm for Cy
Twomblys work to the Alte Pinakothek
Thanks are due to all who worked on the first presentation and publication of Cy
Twomblys new sculptures To Paul Winkler the most intimate connoisseur of the work
for directing the installation of the sculptures in Munich and thus triggering monologs
dialogs and choirs on the experience of sculptures aesthetic in space light and time To
Nicola Del Roscio for giving his friendly advice based on years of intimate knowledge of
the artist s work To Erich Gantzert-Castrillo for supervising and positioning the fragile
sculptures with the care of a conservator specializing in handling 20 th-century art It is
my pleasure also to thank the two famous authors of this volume who coming from the
two hemispheres of Cy Twomblys life discuss his sculptures The greatest living
American playwright Edward Albee and one of the most influential contemporary
philosophers Giorgio Agamben Their lucid essays are followed by the sensitive intershy
pretation of my colleague Carla Schulz-Hoffmann who probes into the deeper strata of
Cy Twomblys sculptures These writings are ingeniously complemented by photographs
that were especially taken for this volume Jochen Littkemann has created wonderfully
lucid portraits of the sculptures while Laurenz Berges proves his mastery in capturing the
atmosphere of the Alte Pinakotheks rooms I also wish to thank Cy Twombly collector
and publisher Lothar Schirmer (and his publishing house SchirmerMosel) for facilitatshy
ing the dialog between essays and photographs and thereby creating such a beautiful
book
Friends of Cy Twombly have contributed to this book-it is therefore a gift to the artist
from his friends
8
CYTWOMBLY Edward Albee
Most painters are painters and most sculptors are sculptors Oh really Well yes-genshy
erally speaking this is so at least as public perception And as we shall see public pershy
ception determines accepted view
Let us limit ourselves to 20 th-century Western art That way we can sidestep considerashy
tion of Michelangelo a clear disprover of the maxim (I prefer his sculpture but that is
neither here nor there)
And let us limit ourselves to prime examples of important painters universally known for
their flat wall work but who have made three-dimensional objects as well and see what
happens Degas (surely he is a 20 th-century painter) made lovely sculpture-glorious
dancers and horses (around the time he was painting horses-Iate-ish) These are splenshy
did works and could have been made only by Degas but excluding these from ones
knowledge of Degas does not diminish Degas one bit
The same could be said of Matisse-a painter (and what a painter) who also made fine
sculpture
And look for a moment at a few sculptors who did not always stick to their last shy
Giacometti for example an important sculptor (though his signature elongated figures
do not hold my interest-perhaps there are just too many of them-as much as his earshy
lier less familiar work) and whose paintings and drawings strike me as basically studies
for sculpture-whether they were made as such or not Giacometti is thought of prishy
marily as a sculptor-and so he is
Marcel Duchamp is a very important sculptor whose three-dimensional work transcends
the accepted definition and whose importance lies primarily in his relocating the boundshy
aries of art and whose art about art work is one of the major turning points in the
20 th-century visual experience He painted-mostly early on-but it is his three-dimenshy
sional objects which define his greatness The important Franco-American sculptor
9
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
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off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
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TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Pub lished on the occasio n or lhe exhibirion
e y Twombly in del Alren Pinakorhek - Sklil pruren
5 April 2006 - 30 Jul y 2006
Alre Pinako rh ek Munich
EX HIBITI ON
co CE PT ~ l) REALI ZATION
Reinhold Baumstark Carla Schulz-HoffmlI1n Paul Winkler
SUPE RVISION OF CO ltS FRVAT ION
Erich GamzCfI- JSLr illo
CATALOG
P UBLIS H ED BY
Baye rische Sraarsgemaldesam mlungen
1 110 rOGRAPHS
Jochen Lirckemann Berlin pp 17-19 2 1 23 25 2729- 3 1 33 Yi middot37
39414345 47 49 ~ 1 53 55 ~7-~9 6 1 63 65- 67 69 7 1 73 75
77798 1- 87 899 19395 cover illustratio n (Un titled 200 1 detail)
Laurenz Berges O(isseldort pp 70111-129 140-141
Udo Brandhorsr pp1 30 132 135- 138
Cagosian Callery cw Yo rk p 97
TRA middotSIATIO 5
Jeremy (aincs (Schulz-HoFFmann Baulllsruk)
Sarah Moore (Agamben)
copy 2006 Pinakolhck Munich and SchirmerMosel Mun ich
For th e sculptures copy 2006 by Cy TVomb ly
This work is prorected by copyrighr in who le and in parr Th e reproduction
or communi utio l1 of this wo rk in any Form or by any me[) wirhour prior
permission from th e pub lisher is ilegal and punishabl e This l l llilt to all ac rs
of ut in particu lar such as rhe reproducrion of ICXl and pi crures rhcir
performance and demonstrarion rran slation filming microfilming broadcasting
storage and procCs in g in electronic media InFringemen ts will be prosecuted
DE SIGN Sch irmerMose l Atelier
LITH OGRAP HY lovaConcepr Berlin
TYP ES IN G Fotosarz Huber Munchen
PRI N T G IIlt D BINDING Passavia PaSSJlI
ISBN 10 J -R29G-0245-6
ISUN 13 978-3-82-02 ) -7
A Schirmer 1osel Produ rion
wwwschirmfr-moselcom
CONTENTS
PREFA C
Reinhold Baumstark
7
CYTWO MBLY
Edward Albee
9
FALLIN G BEAUTY
Giorgio Agamben
13
SCULPTURES
17
T O FEEL ALL THIN GS IN ALL WAYS
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
99
PICT URES AT AN EXHIBITION
II I
JOURNEY T O LEXINGTON
Reinhold Baumstark
13 1
LIST OF OBJECTS
142
BIBLIOGRAPHY
144
PREFACE Reinhold Baumstar~
The fac t that the works of contemporary sculptor Cy Twombly are on show in the Alte
Pinalltothek and that the public can now view sculptures never before shown in our Old
Masters treasury is an appropriate way to honor and recognize this great American artist
who has long since found his way to Europe in his life and work Although they were
created on ly recen tly his sculptures partake of that age-old quest to express absolute
beau ty The force of his sym bols the sensuousness brought to life by h is shaping hand
and the weigh tlessness of the color white shel teri ng the banal objets trouves and
ennObling them with an aura of timelessness All th is serves to place his scul ptures on an
qual plane with the ach ievements of the O ld M asters Thei r vicinity was sought by Cy
Twombly throughout his career H e is familiar with Raphael and Poussin (who both
like him chose to live in Rome) has fo und inspiration in Hieronymus Bosch and has
closely studied the colors of the Flem ish pain ters Therefore in the Alte Pinakothek his
sculptures encounter companio ns and enter into a d ialog with them as equals Sincere
thanks are due [Q th e artist for allowing th is important part of his recent work [Q debut
not in cen ters of contemporary art but at M unichs Al te Pi nakothek and for having the
sculptures come here as personal loans from his private collection From the outset Cy
Twombly has warmly supported the p roj ect His encouragemen t and trust and our
meetings with him were and remain experiences that have come to be- like the objets
trouves in his sculptures-las ting treasures
We have two individuals to thank for bringing Cy Twombly to Munich Very early on
they understood the importance of his art One of them is Heiner Friedrich who comshy
missioned works in 1964 and showed them in his Munich gallery at Maximilianstrasse
under the tide The artist in the northern climate Later Udo Brandhorst by deciding
to bring his highly distinguished collection of contemporary art to Munich initiated a
project of great consequence to the long-term reception of Cy Twomblys art As early as
1966 co llectors Anette and U do Bran d horst had brought together with farsighted
knowledge and passion a great num ber of Cy Twomblys works In recent years the colshy
lection was thoughtfully en larged with an eye to the present cons truction of the
Museum Brand hors t next to the Pinako thek der Moderne culminating in the acquisishy
7
tio n of a late masterwork of this artist the 12-part Lepanto series which had already
been exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in 2002 In the future the Brandhorst Museum
in Munich will be the most important place-after the Menil Collection in Houstonshy
for studying Cy Twomblys art Udo Brandhorst was moreover the initiator for the proshy
ject of presenting the sculptures at the Alte Pinakothek and he has actively supported
this undertaking I warmly thank him for showing us into the artists studio for includshy
ing us in his friendship with the artist and for bringing his enthusiasm for Cy
Twomblys work to the Alte Pinakothek
Thanks are due to all who worked on the first presentation and publication of Cy
Twomblys new sculptures To Paul Winkler the most intimate connoisseur of the work
for directing the installation of the sculptures in Munich and thus triggering monologs
dialogs and choirs on the experience of sculptures aesthetic in space light and time To
Nicola Del Roscio for giving his friendly advice based on years of intimate knowledge of
the artist s work To Erich Gantzert-Castrillo for supervising and positioning the fragile
sculptures with the care of a conservator specializing in handling 20 th-century art It is
my pleasure also to thank the two famous authors of this volume who coming from the
two hemispheres of Cy Twomblys life discuss his sculptures The greatest living
American playwright Edward Albee and one of the most influential contemporary
philosophers Giorgio Agamben Their lucid essays are followed by the sensitive intershy
pretation of my colleague Carla Schulz-Hoffmann who probes into the deeper strata of
Cy Twomblys sculptures These writings are ingeniously complemented by photographs
that were especially taken for this volume Jochen Littkemann has created wonderfully
lucid portraits of the sculptures while Laurenz Berges proves his mastery in capturing the
atmosphere of the Alte Pinakotheks rooms I also wish to thank Cy Twombly collector
and publisher Lothar Schirmer (and his publishing house SchirmerMosel) for facilitatshy
ing the dialog between essays and photographs and thereby creating such a beautiful
book
Friends of Cy Twombly have contributed to this book-it is therefore a gift to the artist
from his friends
8
CYTWOMBLY Edward Albee
Most painters are painters and most sculptors are sculptors Oh really Well yes-genshy
erally speaking this is so at least as public perception And as we shall see public pershy
ception determines accepted view
Let us limit ourselves to 20 th-century Western art That way we can sidestep considerashy
tion of Michelangelo a clear disprover of the maxim (I prefer his sculpture but that is
neither here nor there)
And let us limit ourselves to prime examples of important painters universally known for
their flat wall work but who have made three-dimensional objects as well and see what
happens Degas (surely he is a 20 th-century painter) made lovely sculpture-glorious
dancers and horses (around the time he was painting horses-Iate-ish) These are splenshy
did works and could have been made only by Degas but excluding these from ones
knowledge of Degas does not diminish Degas one bit
The same could be said of Matisse-a painter (and what a painter) who also made fine
sculpture
And look for a moment at a few sculptors who did not always stick to their last shy
Giacometti for example an important sculptor (though his signature elongated figures
do not hold my interest-perhaps there are just too many of them-as much as his earshy
lier less familiar work) and whose paintings and drawings strike me as basically studies
for sculpture-whether they were made as such or not Giacometti is thought of prishy
marily as a sculptor-and so he is
Marcel Duchamp is a very important sculptor whose three-dimensional work transcends
the accepted definition and whose importance lies primarily in his relocating the boundshy
aries of art and whose art about art work is one of the major turning points in the
20 th-century visual experience He painted-mostly early on-but it is his three-dimenshy
sional objects which define his greatness The important Franco-American sculptor
9
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
- - - - -- -~
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
CONTENTS
PREFA C
Reinhold Baumstark
7
CYTWO MBLY
Edward Albee
9
FALLIN G BEAUTY
Giorgio Agamben
13
SCULPTURES
17
T O FEEL ALL THIN GS IN ALL WAYS
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
99
PICT URES AT AN EXHIBITION
II I
JOURNEY T O LEXINGTON
Reinhold Baumstark
13 1
LIST OF OBJECTS
142
BIBLIOGRAPHY
144
PREFACE Reinhold Baumstar~
The fac t that the works of contemporary sculptor Cy Twombly are on show in the Alte
Pinalltothek and that the public can now view sculptures never before shown in our Old
Masters treasury is an appropriate way to honor and recognize this great American artist
who has long since found his way to Europe in his life and work Although they were
created on ly recen tly his sculptures partake of that age-old quest to express absolute
beau ty The force of his sym bols the sensuousness brought to life by h is shaping hand
and the weigh tlessness of the color white shel teri ng the banal objets trouves and
ennObling them with an aura of timelessness All th is serves to place his scul ptures on an
qual plane with the ach ievements of the O ld M asters Thei r vicinity was sought by Cy
Twombly throughout his career H e is familiar with Raphael and Poussin (who both
like him chose to live in Rome) has fo und inspiration in Hieronymus Bosch and has
closely studied the colors of the Flem ish pain ters Therefore in the Alte Pinakothek his
sculptures encounter companio ns and enter into a d ialog with them as equals Sincere
thanks are due [Q th e artist for allowing th is important part of his recent work [Q debut
not in cen ters of contemporary art but at M unichs Al te Pi nakothek and for having the
sculptures come here as personal loans from his private collection From the outset Cy
Twombly has warmly supported the p roj ect His encouragemen t and trust and our
meetings with him were and remain experiences that have come to be- like the objets
trouves in his sculptures-las ting treasures
We have two individuals to thank for bringing Cy Twombly to Munich Very early on
they understood the importance of his art One of them is Heiner Friedrich who comshy
missioned works in 1964 and showed them in his Munich gallery at Maximilianstrasse
under the tide The artist in the northern climate Later Udo Brandhorst by deciding
to bring his highly distinguished collection of contemporary art to Munich initiated a
project of great consequence to the long-term reception of Cy Twomblys art As early as
1966 co llectors Anette and U do Bran d horst had brought together with farsighted
knowledge and passion a great num ber of Cy Twomblys works In recent years the colshy
lection was thoughtfully en larged with an eye to the present cons truction of the
Museum Brand hors t next to the Pinako thek der Moderne culminating in the acquisishy
7
tio n of a late masterwork of this artist the 12-part Lepanto series which had already
been exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in 2002 In the future the Brandhorst Museum
in Munich will be the most important place-after the Menil Collection in Houstonshy
for studying Cy Twomblys art Udo Brandhorst was moreover the initiator for the proshy
ject of presenting the sculptures at the Alte Pinakothek and he has actively supported
this undertaking I warmly thank him for showing us into the artists studio for includshy
ing us in his friendship with the artist and for bringing his enthusiasm for Cy
Twomblys work to the Alte Pinakothek
Thanks are due to all who worked on the first presentation and publication of Cy
Twomblys new sculptures To Paul Winkler the most intimate connoisseur of the work
for directing the installation of the sculptures in Munich and thus triggering monologs
dialogs and choirs on the experience of sculptures aesthetic in space light and time To
Nicola Del Roscio for giving his friendly advice based on years of intimate knowledge of
the artist s work To Erich Gantzert-Castrillo for supervising and positioning the fragile
sculptures with the care of a conservator specializing in handling 20 th-century art It is
my pleasure also to thank the two famous authors of this volume who coming from the
two hemispheres of Cy Twomblys life discuss his sculptures The greatest living
American playwright Edward Albee and one of the most influential contemporary
philosophers Giorgio Agamben Their lucid essays are followed by the sensitive intershy
pretation of my colleague Carla Schulz-Hoffmann who probes into the deeper strata of
Cy Twomblys sculptures These writings are ingeniously complemented by photographs
that were especially taken for this volume Jochen Littkemann has created wonderfully
lucid portraits of the sculptures while Laurenz Berges proves his mastery in capturing the
atmosphere of the Alte Pinakotheks rooms I also wish to thank Cy Twombly collector
and publisher Lothar Schirmer (and his publishing house SchirmerMosel) for facilitatshy
ing the dialog between essays and photographs and thereby creating such a beautiful
book
Friends of Cy Twombly have contributed to this book-it is therefore a gift to the artist
from his friends
8
CYTWOMBLY Edward Albee
Most painters are painters and most sculptors are sculptors Oh really Well yes-genshy
erally speaking this is so at least as public perception And as we shall see public pershy
ception determines accepted view
Let us limit ourselves to 20 th-century Western art That way we can sidestep considerashy
tion of Michelangelo a clear disprover of the maxim (I prefer his sculpture but that is
neither here nor there)
And let us limit ourselves to prime examples of important painters universally known for
their flat wall work but who have made three-dimensional objects as well and see what
happens Degas (surely he is a 20 th-century painter) made lovely sculpture-glorious
dancers and horses (around the time he was painting horses-Iate-ish) These are splenshy
did works and could have been made only by Degas but excluding these from ones
knowledge of Degas does not diminish Degas one bit
The same could be said of Matisse-a painter (and what a painter) who also made fine
sculpture
And look for a moment at a few sculptors who did not always stick to their last shy
Giacometti for example an important sculptor (though his signature elongated figures
do not hold my interest-perhaps there are just too many of them-as much as his earshy
lier less familiar work) and whose paintings and drawings strike me as basically studies
for sculpture-whether they were made as such or not Giacometti is thought of prishy
marily as a sculptor-and so he is
Marcel Duchamp is a very important sculptor whose three-dimensional work transcends
the accepted definition and whose importance lies primarily in his relocating the boundshy
aries of art and whose art about art work is one of the major turning points in the
20 th-century visual experience He painted-mostly early on-but it is his three-dimenshy
sional objects which define his greatness The important Franco-American sculptor
9
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
- - - - -- -~
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
PREFACE Reinhold Baumstar~
The fac t that the works of contemporary sculptor Cy Twombly are on show in the Alte
Pinalltothek and that the public can now view sculptures never before shown in our Old
Masters treasury is an appropriate way to honor and recognize this great American artist
who has long since found his way to Europe in his life and work Although they were
created on ly recen tly his sculptures partake of that age-old quest to express absolute
beau ty The force of his sym bols the sensuousness brought to life by h is shaping hand
and the weigh tlessness of the color white shel teri ng the banal objets trouves and
ennObling them with an aura of timelessness All th is serves to place his scul ptures on an
qual plane with the ach ievements of the O ld M asters Thei r vicinity was sought by Cy
Twombly throughout his career H e is familiar with Raphael and Poussin (who both
like him chose to live in Rome) has fo und inspiration in Hieronymus Bosch and has
closely studied the colors of the Flem ish pain ters Therefore in the Alte Pinakothek his
sculptures encounter companio ns and enter into a d ialog with them as equals Sincere
thanks are due [Q th e artist for allowing th is important part of his recent work [Q debut
not in cen ters of contemporary art but at M unichs Al te Pi nakothek and for having the
sculptures come here as personal loans from his private collection From the outset Cy
Twombly has warmly supported the p roj ect His encouragemen t and trust and our
meetings with him were and remain experiences that have come to be- like the objets
trouves in his sculptures-las ting treasures
We have two individuals to thank for bringing Cy Twombly to Munich Very early on
they understood the importance of his art One of them is Heiner Friedrich who comshy
missioned works in 1964 and showed them in his Munich gallery at Maximilianstrasse
under the tide The artist in the northern climate Later Udo Brandhorst by deciding
to bring his highly distinguished collection of contemporary art to Munich initiated a
project of great consequence to the long-term reception of Cy Twomblys art As early as
1966 co llectors Anette and U do Bran d horst had brought together with farsighted
knowledge and passion a great num ber of Cy Twomblys works In recent years the colshy
lection was thoughtfully en larged with an eye to the present cons truction of the
Museum Brand hors t next to the Pinako thek der Moderne culminating in the acquisishy
7
tio n of a late masterwork of this artist the 12-part Lepanto series which had already
been exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in 2002 In the future the Brandhorst Museum
in Munich will be the most important place-after the Menil Collection in Houstonshy
for studying Cy Twomblys art Udo Brandhorst was moreover the initiator for the proshy
ject of presenting the sculptures at the Alte Pinakothek and he has actively supported
this undertaking I warmly thank him for showing us into the artists studio for includshy
ing us in his friendship with the artist and for bringing his enthusiasm for Cy
Twomblys work to the Alte Pinakothek
Thanks are due to all who worked on the first presentation and publication of Cy
Twomblys new sculptures To Paul Winkler the most intimate connoisseur of the work
for directing the installation of the sculptures in Munich and thus triggering monologs
dialogs and choirs on the experience of sculptures aesthetic in space light and time To
Nicola Del Roscio for giving his friendly advice based on years of intimate knowledge of
the artist s work To Erich Gantzert-Castrillo for supervising and positioning the fragile
sculptures with the care of a conservator specializing in handling 20 th-century art It is
my pleasure also to thank the two famous authors of this volume who coming from the
two hemispheres of Cy Twomblys life discuss his sculptures The greatest living
American playwright Edward Albee and one of the most influential contemporary
philosophers Giorgio Agamben Their lucid essays are followed by the sensitive intershy
pretation of my colleague Carla Schulz-Hoffmann who probes into the deeper strata of
Cy Twomblys sculptures These writings are ingeniously complemented by photographs
that were especially taken for this volume Jochen Littkemann has created wonderfully
lucid portraits of the sculptures while Laurenz Berges proves his mastery in capturing the
atmosphere of the Alte Pinakotheks rooms I also wish to thank Cy Twombly collector
and publisher Lothar Schirmer (and his publishing house SchirmerMosel) for facilitatshy
ing the dialog between essays and photographs and thereby creating such a beautiful
book
Friends of Cy Twombly have contributed to this book-it is therefore a gift to the artist
from his friends
8
CYTWOMBLY Edward Albee
Most painters are painters and most sculptors are sculptors Oh really Well yes-genshy
erally speaking this is so at least as public perception And as we shall see public pershy
ception determines accepted view
Let us limit ourselves to 20 th-century Western art That way we can sidestep considerashy
tion of Michelangelo a clear disprover of the maxim (I prefer his sculpture but that is
neither here nor there)
And let us limit ourselves to prime examples of important painters universally known for
their flat wall work but who have made three-dimensional objects as well and see what
happens Degas (surely he is a 20 th-century painter) made lovely sculpture-glorious
dancers and horses (around the time he was painting horses-Iate-ish) These are splenshy
did works and could have been made only by Degas but excluding these from ones
knowledge of Degas does not diminish Degas one bit
The same could be said of Matisse-a painter (and what a painter) who also made fine
sculpture
And look for a moment at a few sculptors who did not always stick to their last shy
Giacometti for example an important sculptor (though his signature elongated figures
do not hold my interest-perhaps there are just too many of them-as much as his earshy
lier less familiar work) and whose paintings and drawings strike me as basically studies
for sculpture-whether they were made as such or not Giacometti is thought of prishy
marily as a sculptor-and so he is
Marcel Duchamp is a very important sculptor whose three-dimensional work transcends
the accepted definition and whose importance lies primarily in his relocating the boundshy
aries of art and whose art about art work is one of the major turning points in the
20 th-century visual experience He painted-mostly early on-but it is his three-dimenshy
sional objects which define his greatness The important Franco-American sculptor
9
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
- - - - -- -~
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
tio n of a late masterwork of this artist the 12-part Lepanto series which had already
been exhibited in the Alte Pinakothek in 2002 In the future the Brandhorst Museum
in Munich will be the most important place-after the Menil Collection in Houstonshy
for studying Cy Twomblys art Udo Brandhorst was moreover the initiator for the proshy
ject of presenting the sculptures at the Alte Pinakothek and he has actively supported
this undertaking I warmly thank him for showing us into the artists studio for includshy
ing us in his friendship with the artist and for bringing his enthusiasm for Cy
Twomblys work to the Alte Pinakothek
Thanks are due to all who worked on the first presentation and publication of Cy
Twomblys new sculptures To Paul Winkler the most intimate connoisseur of the work
for directing the installation of the sculptures in Munich and thus triggering monologs
dialogs and choirs on the experience of sculptures aesthetic in space light and time To
Nicola Del Roscio for giving his friendly advice based on years of intimate knowledge of
the artist s work To Erich Gantzert-Castrillo for supervising and positioning the fragile
sculptures with the care of a conservator specializing in handling 20 th-century art It is
my pleasure also to thank the two famous authors of this volume who coming from the
two hemispheres of Cy Twomblys life discuss his sculptures The greatest living
American playwright Edward Albee and one of the most influential contemporary
philosophers Giorgio Agamben Their lucid essays are followed by the sensitive intershy
pretation of my colleague Carla Schulz-Hoffmann who probes into the deeper strata of
Cy Twomblys sculptures These writings are ingeniously complemented by photographs
that were especially taken for this volume Jochen Littkemann has created wonderfully
lucid portraits of the sculptures while Laurenz Berges proves his mastery in capturing the
atmosphere of the Alte Pinakotheks rooms I also wish to thank Cy Twombly collector
and publisher Lothar Schirmer (and his publishing house SchirmerMosel) for facilitatshy
ing the dialog between essays and photographs and thereby creating such a beautiful
book
Friends of Cy Twombly have contributed to this book-it is therefore a gift to the artist
from his friends
8
CYTWOMBLY Edward Albee
Most painters are painters and most sculptors are sculptors Oh really Well yes-genshy
erally speaking this is so at least as public perception And as we shall see public pershy
ception determines accepted view
Let us limit ourselves to 20 th-century Western art That way we can sidestep considerashy
tion of Michelangelo a clear disprover of the maxim (I prefer his sculpture but that is
neither here nor there)
And let us limit ourselves to prime examples of important painters universally known for
their flat wall work but who have made three-dimensional objects as well and see what
happens Degas (surely he is a 20 th-century painter) made lovely sculpture-glorious
dancers and horses (around the time he was painting horses-Iate-ish) These are splenshy
did works and could have been made only by Degas but excluding these from ones
knowledge of Degas does not diminish Degas one bit
The same could be said of Matisse-a painter (and what a painter) who also made fine
sculpture
And look for a moment at a few sculptors who did not always stick to their last shy
Giacometti for example an important sculptor (though his signature elongated figures
do not hold my interest-perhaps there are just too many of them-as much as his earshy
lier less familiar work) and whose paintings and drawings strike me as basically studies
for sculpture-whether they were made as such or not Giacometti is thought of prishy
marily as a sculptor-and so he is
Marcel Duchamp is a very important sculptor whose three-dimensional work transcends
the accepted definition and whose importance lies primarily in his relocating the boundshy
aries of art and whose art about art work is one of the major turning points in the
20 th-century visual experience He painted-mostly early on-but it is his three-dimenshy
sional objects which define his greatness The important Franco-American sculptor
9
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
- - - - -- -~
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
CYTWOMBLY Edward Albee
Most painters are painters and most sculptors are sculptors Oh really Well yes-genshy
erally speaking this is so at least as public perception And as we shall see public pershy
ception determines accepted view
Let us limit ourselves to 20 th-century Western art That way we can sidestep considerashy
tion of Michelangelo a clear disprover of the maxim (I prefer his sculpture but that is
neither here nor there)
And let us limit ourselves to prime examples of important painters universally known for
their flat wall work but who have made three-dimensional objects as well and see what
happens Degas (surely he is a 20 th-century painter) made lovely sculpture-glorious
dancers and horses (around the time he was painting horses-Iate-ish) These are splenshy
did works and could have been made only by Degas but excluding these from ones
knowledge of Degas does not diminish Degas one bit
The same could be said of Matisse-a painter (and what a painter) who also made fine
sculpture
And look for a moment at a few sculptors who did not always stick to their last shy
Giacometti for example an important sculptor (though his signature elongated figures
do not hold my interest-perhaps there are just too many of them-as much as his earshy
lier less familiar work) and whose paintings and drawings strike me as basically studies
for sculpture-whether they were made as such or not Giacometti is thought of prishy
marily as a sculptor-and so he is
Marcel Duchamp is a very important sculptor whose three-dimensional work transcends
the accepted definition and whose importance lies primarily in his relocating the boundshy
aries of art and whose art about art work is one of the major turning points in the
20 th-century visual experience He painted-mostly early on-but it is his three-dimenshy
sional objects which define his greatness The important Franco-American sculptor
9
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
- - - - -- -~
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Louise Bourg ois has made probably hundreds of works on pap r which are a fascinatshy
ing guide to her unconscio us bu t it is her wooden totems of the early 50s as well as her
later Rooms which will one day penetrate the public consciousn ss sufficiently to place
her properly in d ue hierarchy
Now let us look at three painters whose rhr e-dimensional objects are- to my mind-as
important as their flat works Picasso Rauschenb rg and Cy Twombly
No one doubts Picass s greatness as a painter or h is importance t the history of 20 rh_
century art (though what the p ublic likes is rarely work from h is m ost importan t peri shy
ods) His sculpture-from th cubist work right on th rough except perhaps-again to
my mind-the tedious ceramics is as fi ne as the paintings (drawings graphic work) and
is instructive to any s ulptor or-for that matter-anyone interes ted in the proc sses of
the creative mi nd specifically in the ways that the sculptures echo the three-dimension shy
ality of the paintings (has any 20 rh-century painter been more three-dilnensional than
Picasso) and exist on such a high creative level themselves Whenever I see a Picasso
piece of sculpture (especially the cubist ones of course) I fin d my brea th is taken once
agam
While Degas would not be diminished as an artist were his sculptures not to exist I b 1
that Picasso would be
Among the US painters of the second half of the 20 rh-century (and thro ugh to now) one
stands out to me as a painter who redefIned sculpture (Robert Rausch nb rg) and one
emerges that rare artist equally important in both fi elds equally exciting as painter and
sculptor-Cy Twombly
Rauschenbergs flat work is frequently not flat of course and the Combines an d th e
fully free-standing pieces from the early 90s are important works that make dearer the
preconceptions of his totally flat pieces Would Rauschenberg be less without h is threeshy
dimensional work I think so
Cy Twombly is an artist who has made scul pture almost as long as he has made paint shy
ings but public awareness of it has been sJow in arriving (But again it was not un til
well into his career that people began to sense the worth of his paintings-no t that he
was slow in blooming but the specialness of the work the uniqueness of the vision put
10
- - - - -- -~
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
off those who have to relate something to some specific other in order to know how
their response should be formulated)
Does Twomblys sculpture look like the kind of work a painter would make No cershy
tainly not Does his painting look like the sort of work a sculptor would make Equally
no Both his paintings and his sculpture look like the extraordinarily individual mysterishy
ous and inevitable art works that an artist of his calibre and thrilling non-referentiality
would make
We can say of Twomblys work-as praise-that we dont know where it comes from
that its sources exist solely in the mind of the artist and that comparisons tell us nothing
Twomblys sculpture looks as though it has always existed and is at the same time totalshy
ly new It refers only to itself (however much we attempt to demystify it) The pieces are
solid airy serious (but never humorless) and say to us Look at me as I am I am simply
this
What a wonder for us that simply this is so thrilling so individual I wouldnt be surshy
prised if one day-way down the line-Cy Twombly will be known as the great sculptor
who also did some amazing paintings
NYC 2006
II
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
FALLING BEAUTY Giorgio Agamben
T he sculpture Untitled dated Gaeta 1984 bears the English translation of some lines
from Rilke inscribed on a scroll on the base T hese are not just any old verses but the
four verses concluding the Tenth Elegy and thus the entire cycle of the Duino Elegies
And it is precisely in the Tenth Elegy that Ri lke speaks as if he were describing an
unheard offering-but also a tempest without a name a spiritual hurricane during
which everything in me that was fiber and tissue cracked
The original four lines Twombly transcribes onto his sculpture are as follows
Und wir die an steigendes Gluck
den ken empfonden die Ruhrung
die uns beinah besturzt
wenn ein Gluckliches falIt
And we who think of happiness
ascending would feel the emotion
that almost overwhelms us
when a happy thing foIls
I would like to linger a while on the proximity between the movement in this verse and
that in Twomblys sculpture which bears witness to their connection to Untitled and
which is surely no coincidence
We all know that the Tenth Elegy is a sort of death ceremony certainly not a Christian
one but rather an Egyptian one Right at the end the dead youth who has traversed the
land of Lamentation silently climbs (steigt) the mountain of Ur-Ieid of primordial Pain
And here after this silent ascent the poet introduces the vertical image of the fall
Aber erweckten sie uns die unendlich To ten ein Gleichnis
siehe sie zeigten vielleicht aufdie Katzchen der leeren
Hasel die hangenden oder
meinten den Regen der flllt aufdunkles Erdreich im Fruhjahr
13
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
But if they were to awaken a symbol for us the endlessly dead
see perhaps they would point to the catkins of the empty
hazels the ones just hanging there or
the rain that falls upon the dark earth in Spring
So as in Twomblys sculpture the idea here is one of a flower a falling plant Rilke had
originally written the catkins of the willow tree but then his friend Elisabeth Aman
Volkart sent him a book on botany and he was able to note that it was not willow but
hazel (Ha5e~ that has hanging flowers In his reply Rilke writes that when he first hears
it it is precisely this fall that the reader must gather and comprehend in the catkins
The idea of the fall in the poem is rendered in metric terms by a true split in the second
and particularly in the third line signaled by a enjambement that interrupts the sense in
a particularly sharp way with a disjointed or (The fracture of the stem or the trunk in
Twomblys sculpture seems to repeat this sharpness)
In the four lines that follow which are the ones Twombly has transcribed onto the
scroll the fracture is further underlined by the fact that in metric terms this verse repshy
resents the breaking of two elegy-type lines into four hemistichs almost as though the
internal caesura in each line had expanded to the point of destroying its unity to the
point of blasting it into two halves
I believe that these considerations can form a useful viaticum for understanding the
formal problem that Twombly who demonstrates that he has intently contemplated the
lesson of the Tenth Elegy proposes in his untitled sculpture In more concise words the
problem is this What is falling beauty Or put yet another way How can we give
form to broken and falling beauty
There comes a point on the creative journey of every great artist every poet when the
image of beauty that he appeared to pursue until then as a continual ascent suddenly
inverts and starts falling directly downwards so to speak It is this topical moment that
finds expression in Twomblys untitled piece in the cracking of the wood that reversing
its upward movement falls back to earth right at the point where the scroll inscribes its
Rilkean motto
In the obscure almost feverish annotations on his translation of Sophocles Holderlin
developed a theory of the caesura that I do not think would be impertinent to recall
here In the textured cut in the line made by the caesura that for this reason he calls
anti-rhythmic suspension what appears writes Holderlin is no longer the alternating
of representations the successive movement of the subject and the sense but the represhy
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
sen tation itself the p ure word It seems to me that in this vis ionary sculpture it is as
though Twombly has succeeded in giving form to a caesura in d isplaying its sculptural
equivalent In drastically eliminating the floral paraphernalia of Rilkean Jugendstil he
red uces the problem down to its basic form al core And as according to Holderlin the
caesura displays the word itself here it is both the work and the art itself that appears in
the shattering and breaking of the upward movement What I am trying to say is that
the work is not simply a representat ion o f the caesura but is the caesura itself in its
movemen t th e caesura-the caesura that exposes the inactive core of every work the
poin t at which the will of art supporting i t seems almost blinded and suspended For
this reason it is as though the movement of falling beauty has no weight it is not the
work of gravity but a sort of inverse flight like the one Simone Weil had to think of
when she asked Gravity makes things come down wings make them rise What wings
raised to the second power can make things come down without weight
Such is Twom blys gesture in these ex treme sculptures in which every ascent is
reversed and suspended almost a threshold or caesura between an action and a nonshy
action Fall ing beauty It is the point of de-creation when the artist in his supreme way
no longer creates but de-creates the messianic moment which has no possible tide and
in which art mi raculously stands still almost thunderstruck fallen and risen at every
moment
In his essay G iorgio Agamben refers to the Untitled sculpture Gae ta 1984
which is still in the possession of the artist Ill in N icola D el Roscio (ed)
Catalogue Raisonne ofSculpture vol 1 (1946-1997) (Munich 1997) no 7 l
15
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Untitled (Om Ma Ni Pad Me Hum) 2000 230 x 655 x 45 5 em ca e 8
r6
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
I
J
-
bull ~
~
bull ~ --
-~ t
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Unrid d 2004 125 x 33 x 278 em
ca L 30 (above dCla il)
18
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
( I
I ( J
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
--
ntided 2003 40 x 53 x 53 em
Gu22
22
---- -----~
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
TO FEEL ALL THINGS IN ALL WAYS New sculptures by Cy Twombly
Carla Schulz-Hoffmann
Cy Twomblys sculptures join in a very subtle and straightforward manner the most disshy
tinct extremes Trivial everyday materials found objects turn into mysterious monuments
seemingly shrouded in mist into gravestones hybrid towers from archaic cultures or
fragile structures that kindle a wealth of widely differing associations Shades of white in
an astonishing range of nuances only here and there accented by a few sparing touches of
color endow these works with an aura of imperviousness and mystery but also a wealth
that can only be grasped emotionally and not through reason With paint splashed as
though without intent running in streaks and with plaster applied thickly and clumping
to create amorphous shapes they convey a sense of not being finished and of containing
the potential to change Nothing is unequivocally and irrevocably defined everything is
upheld as potentiality-the triviality of the simple basic forms as well as the substantive
claim of a monument laden with meaning From the imperfection of the shapes which
often seem captured in processes of evolving and decaying of waking and dreaming a
delicate balance develops a state of suspendedness that enfolds both past and future
The whi te of the sculptures binds any number of possi ble colors that have not yet
found their manifestation or deliberately conceal it This corresponds to an intuitively
correlating reality which accumulates the near and the far the seen and the heard
knowledge and sensory perception all in one great cosmos and in one state of consciousshy
ness However all this does not take place in the sense of appropriation for as Roland
Barthes puts it aptly Lart de TW-cest la sa moralite-et aussi son extreme singularshy
ite historique-ne veut rien saisir1
With the certainty of a somnambulist Twombly combines different literary musical and
sculptural stimuli memories from the preconscious of the past and present in a timeless
visual idiom Its meditative unity and sensory intensity holds in concentrated form the
entire cosmos of human feelings moods and desires without constraining or apodicti shy
cally defining anything Twomblys art thus marks a line in Nlodernity that favors the
presence of timelessness and the positive force of in the best sense uncivilized free
thought to counteract the power of the factual the banality of the quotidian
99
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
More clearly than in his paintings written character hL e to form legible lines of writing
in Cy Twom bly sculptures Dedications sen ten es indeed eJuire verses emerge- allowshy
ing cross-refer nce to li terary sources and associative combinati ns of meaning
One stele-like sculpture with a broad substructure made of everyday objects- found
objects and leftov rs of domestic life placed one on top of the other to form a t wershy
bears the dedication to a certain Alvaro de Campos (pp 35- 37) Beneath it we read the
initially mysterious statement To feel all things in all ways which at the same time
establishes a direct link to Twomblys creative notion of looking at reality as a wealth of
interlinked elements that can be experienced intuitively
In another sculpture that is quite comparable in structure and reminis ent with its
tilted upper structure of an anci nt plough (a motif that crops up repeatedly [pp
39-41]) we read under the h adline Demeter Departure of ripolemos the verse
Hello keeper of sheep
There on the side of the road
What does the blowing
Win say to you
According to Greek mythology riptolemos2 (th beloved of the Goddess of Fertility
Demeter whom sh gifted wi th the art of planting wheat) traveled the world teaching
men to plough and sow On one level and with a view to the passage from the poem we
can make the connection to distant Arcadia to an unbroken f rm of natural rural life
This is also alluded to in the plough motif and the bottom element us d in both sculpshy
tures which s ms like one of those wood n troughs used for baking bread turned
upside down
A far broader horizon opens before lLS if we relate the texts on both sculptures teach
other The mo nument in memo ry of Alvaro de Campos is dedicated to one of the
numerous fictitio us lives of Fernando Pessoa one of the m t influential Portuguese
poets of the 20rh century and the author of poetic prose texts Pessoa clad his ego in
more than eigh ty distinct heteronyms each with its own biography characters and
roles His mo t prominent personas were Alberto Caeiro Ricardo Reis Bernardo Soares
and that Alvaro de Campos The latter took for his motto in life the sensing of reality in
all its facets as he variou ly elaborated in his poem Times Passage There w read
To feel everything in ev ry way
To live very thing from all sides
IOO
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
To be the same thing in all ways
Possible at the same time
To realize in oneself all humanity at all moments
In one scattered extravagant complete and aloo f moment3
Tellingly the above call to the shepherds likewise stems from a Pessoa persona Alberto
Caeiro whose most impo rtant cycle of works is dedicated to the keeper of the sheep4
H e supplements and expands the empathetic approach to reality by deploying the catshy
egory of the ephemeral of the blurred and the unstable The shepherd is not the keeper
of a real herd as Pessoa has his protagonist declare but instead of the infinite wealth of
his own though ts He hopes to track them down in the winds fl eeting messages there
on the roadside The analogy to Twomblys work could hardly be more breathtaking To
feel all in everything and to hearken to the mysteries lying beyond well-trodden paths
T h is is the claim forcefully made by Twomblys work At the same time his sculptures
are don1inated-in the sense of Joan Mira- by immobile movement by the eloshy
quence of silence which shrouds them magically as if in a cocoon
The perfection of the imperfect of the restrai ned and moreover crude gesture that
does not seek to label instills one scul pture (n1ade of circular vessels stacked upsideshy
down and bearing the inscrip tion Beauty is a promise of happiness [po 23J) with an
ironic as well as a melancholic component This travesty of a birthday or wedding cake is
covered in thickly applied white streaks of plaster and color con tradicting any customshy
ary notion of beauty and along with the wooden sti rrer attached to it ho rizontally makes
it resemble an explosive The quotation on beauty appears in the works of English writer
and statesman Edmund Burke (1 729-1 797) and also of French novelist Stendhal
(1783- 1842) al though Americans primarily tend to associate it with the latter-albeit
with a decisive twist fo r Stendhal speaks of beauty that is not more than a promise of
happinessG
Yet Twombly articulates Stendhals doubts as to the natural p ropinquity of beauty and
happiness th rough his treatlnen t and shaping of materials thereby maki ng that promise
seem vague and fleeting An indisti nct feeling of sorrow arises that is increased in anothshy
er sculp ture which is in the context of the other works surprisingly strong in color (pp
29- 31) A rectangular base upon it another shape narrowing at the top both painted
coarsely white are crowned with paper fl owers in green yellow purple and red tones
T heir beauty seems to be destin ed for death and- as jf pausing in their last breathshy
they hold on to a pale reflection of their former exis tenc
101
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
The colors of these flowers are to be found applied furiously on large canvases in the
artists 12-part cycle of paintings devoted to the Battle of Lepanto Unusually bright
almost risky scales of color define the drama of this sequence of pictures that take as
their theme one of the most symbol-laden battles in human history On October 7
1571 the Holy League an alliance of Spanish Venetian and Papist troops led by Don
Juan dAustria was outnumbered by but beat the Ottoman fleet off Lepanto (today
Nafpaktos) in the Gulf of Corinth initiating the decline of Ottoman predominance of
the Mediterranean
Yet what might interest a living abstract artist in an historical event that is present to
us today merely as a well recalled date in history but is otherwise lost to the mists of the
past
Twombly as early as 1957 when he moved to Italy became preoccupied with the
diverse cultural influences and mythological traditions of the Mediterranean countries
This is evident in related titles for his works From his studio in Gaeta located between
Rome and Naples Twombly overlooks a port in use since Roman days where today US
naval vessels lie at anchor His place of birth namely Lexington in Virginia where he
painted the Lepanto pictures is home to a renowned military academy and is also the
center of the still very lively cult surrounding the American War of Independence
Lepanto is far removed from all this indeed the series develops as it were the antishy
thetical counterpart to all forms of an unquestioning acceptance of reality and to the
cult of history Based on the historical sequence Lepanto conveys the climate and the
mood of an extra-temporal existential situation marked by extreme emotions
Reports from eyewitnesses reveal that the sea battle took place on a very bright day
and that against all expectations the Leagues slow ships beat the elegant gilded and far
more glorious Turkish fleet in a battle that darkened the skies and that saw thousands
slaughtered as though in a blood rage All this is reflected in Lepanto albeit not in the
sense of an approximation to the facts but to the mood It is as if the sea the day flooded
in sunlight gleaming marvelously and yet drenched in blood were made palpable to all
senses With this if you will Twombly proposes a quite different more radical form of
history painting that at once entails its impossibility This is not about objectifiable facts
but about an overall context that comprises all the inconsistencies and contradictions of
memory and perception
The sensory intensity of the battle fray in the sculpture has given way to melancholy
The flowers are made of crumpled Kleenex tissues dipped in paint and kept by Twombly
from his work on the pictures s While celebrating the triumph of the victors and yet
102
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
honoring the dead they are withering It is no coincidence that the sculpture evokes a
festive and yet elegiac atmosphere It is remin iscent of the leftovers of an opulent party
and of a decorated catafalque whose gloriously colored ornament already contains traces
of the decay that will set in Strangely like almost all his sculptures it thus conveys more
strongly than his paintings that aura of an am bience influenced by Classicism someshy
thing familiar to Twombly in its typically American form from Virginia T he sculptures
evidently reflect the particular historical and geographical situation of a state which still
seems to breathe history today and where architecture and countryside exude a specific
atmosphere of the momentary and of leisure
Here the decisive moment of tranquility between extremes between the bounty of life
and standstill between beauty and its irrevocable end can be felt distinctly in the stele
raised on top of three cubes and made from two juxtaposed wooden planks (p 17)
Letters-fleeting and seemingly unintentionally applied in blue fragments with dried
drips of paint-form to spell out the Buddhist mantra O M MA NI PAD ME HUM Its
meaning cannot be conclusively decoded T he popular translation I bow down before
Him who sits in the Lotus blossom does not reflect its ambivalence but that does not
matter Instead what counts is that through constant repetition of the syllables a permashy
nent flow arises and language gradually loses its meaning as a reference to reality Instead
it is experienced as pure empty form Language as a means of communication words in
their function as signs symbolizing things-all this is transcended to a higher form of
conscIousness
References to Buddhist notions are to be found throughout Twomblys ~uvre where
(as is generally typical of his approach) they are combined with different levels of meanshy
ing thereby keeping all questions as to meaning unresolved We must desist from linking
Twomblys associative and intuitive combinatory method too unequivocally to a specific
meaning as this would work against the very nature of this method We may safely
assume that the prominent use of the mantras (appearing as early as in the 1982 largeshy
format drawing Suma 9) as well as in the use of the lotus flower and of the wheel serves as
reference to lifes core as bounty in a vacuum as peace in the center of the maelstrom of
movement
The tense concentration a distinguishing mark of all his works is especially accented in
the numerous sculptures which may emphatically be termed monuments They are all
of a comparable basic type On rectangular bases or oval wooden troughs turned upside
down (pp 35-37 39-41) tower round or angular superstructures made of a variety of
103
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
materials for instance crowns of large paper flowers (pp 50-51) coarsely worked pieces
of wood or found objects (pp 21 65-67 70-71 73) vertically positioned thin planks
(pp 25 35-37) or round discs (pp 58-61) These creations are often covered with
lumps of plaster to the point of distortedness (pp 26-27) Their kinetic energy ie their
true core seems to pull together inside The sculptures rest in themselves protect themshy
selves and the secret they conceal within
Restrained sensuousness characterizes one sculpture (p 21) that is accentuated by
specks of red color On its long side there emerges an only partly decipherable inscripshy
tion possibly the words wings and word that along with the female name Thea are
reminiscent in their elegiac tone of John Keats Hyperion fragment recounting in the
romantic language of the early 19 rh century the Olympic gods triumph over their ancesshy
tors Here Thea sister and wife of the Titan Hyperion and mother of sun god Helios
takes on the role of the character suffering from the changes mediating and vainly seekshy
ing a way out 10
A similarly restrained mode a sense of being locked in is expressed in both rigorously
constructed sculptures that are only sparingly covered by plaster On them one can bareshy
ly make out the scribbled letters of the words Levkon and Repos Telos (= end) or
Tele (= distance) is to be read on the one (pp 70-71) With bright wings on the
other (p 73) The sculptures are reminiscent of gravestones and together with the text
(the French word Repos is also used in Greek in the sense of a resting place) suggest a
specific reference to Levkon I under whose rule in the 4rh century BC the burial culshy
ture of the Scythians and Greeks reached its zenith in the colony of Panticapaeum on
the Black Sea coast The king was probably buried there The entrance to the famous
Royal Mound was in the vernacular called the vagina or arrowhead associations
which Twombly could have combined here with a hymn to Venus in which the goddess
of immortal birds is borne to Earth with bright wings 11
However the importance of this should not be overrated either as the focus evidently
is on parallel moods and emotions that bring these historical references to life
Something similar is true for the rigorously structured monument with the title In
Memory 0Babur (p 25) which is distinguished by the dedication inscribed thinly into
the bases plaster coat The writing jotted down in childlike manner dominates the
solemnly barren gravestone precisely because it is so delicate Thereby it draws all attenshy
tion to a possibly underlying secret The name Babur triggers associations with some
remote Oriental empire The Tiger 12 which is what the name means in Persian was
Emperor of India in the 16 rh century and founded the Mogul Empire He was a poet
104
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
whose works praise male courage valor and passion as well as meditative withdrawal
We can in timate a long gone fairytale Arcadia appearing as if in a lucid dream but wi th shy
drawing back into its shrine as we try to hold on to it
T his dreamy component this state between life and death appears in Inodi fi ed form
in a sculpture that is dedicated to a historical figure albeit one shrouded in legend (pp
84-85) Over a rectangular base towers a pyramid of three tubular sections of different
sizes all enveloped in a thickJy flowing fissured layer of plaster The structure is rem inisshy
cent of ancien t temple complexes or French Revolu tion archi tecture Two paper inscripshy
tions pinned or respectively nailed to the base provide orientation Both mysteriously
allude to the mathematical dream of a certain Ashurbanipal who was king of Assyria
in the 7rh century BC and founded in Nineveh one of the n10st famous libraries of the
ancient world and revolut ionized among other d isciplines mathematics by subdividing
the ci rcle into 360 degrees The dream-become-reality resonates in the sculpture which
in its appearance recalls Mesopotamian stone edifices and reliefs
The large inscription LEX (which as in many of Twom blys works refers to
Lexington as the place of origin) inevitably brings to mind the Latin word for law an
association that lends the sculptures even greater weight
Comparable hybrid tower structures- fantastic architectural forms alternately recall
toys the Tower of Babel and the gigantism of conten1porary high-rises They are created
by layering parts that are as bereft of function as they are disparate an d that convey
through the white plaster (pp 53 57 63 75 77) or the patina of the bronze (pp 93
95) a deceptive image of stability and balance
From surprising combinations of banal everyday utensils a magic world emerges
seducing us into accepting as probable the most improbable An old crate with wooden
wheels a pa rt of a ladder and two paper flower blossoms attached to wire transform in to
a baby carriage or the thro ne of a fore ign culture (p 89) Wooden wheels boards and
burlap are sculp ted with the help of screws string and an allover coat of plaster into an
object of mysterious logic and intrinsic consequence that yet appears to us coherent and
impenetrable (p 45) Pieces of wood that have been used for stirring paint and look like
oars turn through this fragile mon tage into epitaphs of shipwreck (p 54) From a base
of imitation tuff reminiscent of a skull rises a small wood-and-wire construction that
bears a crown of alder leaves (pp 82- 83)
Vague memories of old rituals of myth ical sources surface yet cannot be pinned down
At the same time they carry a visi on of the potential for change of growth and spring
and of fem ininity T hese associations fi nd confi rmation in the llse of the alder leaves as
that tree is symbol of the uncanny of fi re and water earth feminin ity and growth
105
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
By contrast the thunderbolt of a mythical god has drilled its way into a plastershy
smeared plastic can Robbed of its former powers it is a mere copy of itself (p 81)
In one small monument resonates a melancholy sense of transience and vulnerability
innate in human intimacy and erotic attraction (pp 65-67) Two branches have been
tied together and placed on an altar-like structure They seem frozen in motion a mere
shadow of the comforting closeness now lost The inscription-clearly legible in grey its
shadow in blue-underlines this impression With a slash implying an equation Eros is
characterized as a binder and joiner Revealing are the semantic implications of these
terms connoting on the one hand the vocations of bookbinder and carpenter denoting
on the other the tying up coupling Thus Eros is designated a quite compulsive and yet
highly vulnerable ailing plant lacking the energy to stay alive
This erotic component becomes oppressive in a dangerously unstable sculpture that
has raised on a rough crate quite literally lost its balance (p 33) Like the sword of
Damocles (enveloped at the lower end in plaster and cord to form a phallus) a branch
dangles on a thin wire over the abyss Another a horizontal element used to hold the
others in place and negligently fastened by a nail hardly promises safety and in fact
underlines the threat to the entire structure the threat to masculinity as expressed in the
fear of castration
Tie-ups injuries only casually bandaged nails cords and wires repeatedly crop up in
these works They intensify the instability in many of the works and are crucial to their
ambivalence Gnarled branches mounted hastily on a board that is painted black in the
upper part are reminiscent of a hybrid human figure or a mandrake that resides in some
undefined interim realm (p 47) Three nails and wire connect part of a broomstick with
a board in such a way that it looks like a burning candle and yet has something exploshy
sive about it (pp 86-87) The small plaster shape on the reverse that dissolves into
impasto streaks and evokes a crucifixion the splashed traces of red paint resembling
blood and the monumental stability of the substructure all form an interplay of diverse
possible evolvements leaving open the outcome
This universal perception that creates harmony between all and everything that meanshy
ders playfully between ages and worlds that keeps everything in balance that lets the
remote seem close and vice versa finds a parallel in a principal idea of Classicism
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe phrased it in exemplary manner in his interpretation of
the Laocoon group1 3 He explains the beauty of this sculpture as deriving from the
choice of the right moment I would readily say as the groupe is now exposed it is a
flash of lightening fixed a wave petrified at the instant when it is approaching the
106
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
shore 14 The ultimately hopeless battle against the death-bringing snakes so Goethes
dictum is here captured in those few seconds that hold the promise of an open end In
this Goethe sees the indispensable condition for the creation of great art because a
double grief unavailing efforts a situation which deprives him of all relief can only
excite horror and cannot even touch 15 Elsewhere he summarizes that the groupe
of Laocoon is a model of symmetry and of variety of repose and of motion of opposhy
sition and ofgradation which present themselves together to him who contemplates it in
a sensible or intellectual manner that these qualities notwithstanding the great pathetic
diffused over the representation excite an agreeable sensation and moderate the vioshy
lence of the passions and of the sufferings by grace and beauty 16
Although filtered by the gaze of contemporary artists and derived from a completely
changed repertoire of images and material Twomblys gaze nevertheless reflects this
stance With the greatest possible density and concentration his work mirrors that
balance of past and present rest and motion lack and plenty-not as factual reality but
as the outcome of experience that activates all senses and keeps them alert
107
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
NOTE S
I Barthes Roland N on multa sed mulcum in Lamberr
Yvon Catalogue raLsonne des ouvres sur papier de Cy Twombly
voL VI 1973-1979 (Milan 1979) pp 7-13 here p 13
2 In Tvvomblys work without the t (Tripolemos)
3 Alvaro de Campos Times Passage in Zenith Richard
(Ed) Fernando Pessoa 6- Co Selected Poems (New York
1999) pp 146 ff
4 Albeno Caeiro Hello Keeper of sheep in op ciL p 53
5 Joan Mir6 I work like a gardener reprinred in the exhibishy
tion catalogjoan Min Creator oNew Worlds (Srockholm
1998) based on (he translation by Margit Rowell Uoan
j1ir6 Selected writings and interviews [London 1987J)
pp 223-226 p 224 (the original French version flrst
appeared in Revue du XXe siecie no 1 1959)
6 The quote in Stendhal reads La beaute nest que la promesse
du bonheur in Stendhal De IAmour (Paris 1822)
Stend hals pseudonym refers to Stendal the binhplace of
Johann Joachim Vinckelmann-an uninrenrional but
nevertheless inreresting parallel if we consider Cy Twomblys
afflnity to Classicism
7 Lepanto 2001 12-pan cycle of painrings acrylic wax crayon
and graphite on canvas sized between 2108 and 2165 cm
(height) and 2877 and 3404 cm (width) Udo and Anette
Brandhorst Collection In 2002 the Lepanto painrings went
on show at Munichs Alte Pinakothek As of 2008 they will be
one of the highlights of the Brandhorst Museum Munich
8 Oral communication by the anist during a visit to his studio
in LexingtonVirginia in Fall 2004 where the Lepanto painrshy
ings like most of the sculpcures on display were made
9 See on this poinr the extensive discussion by Richard Leeman
in Leeman Richard Cy Twomb6 j1alen Zeichnen
Schreiben (Munich 2005) p 222
10 John Keats (1795-1821) Keats John Hyperion En Fragment
(Darmstadt 1948) cciition in English and German)
II John Herman Merivale Hymn to Venus 1833 in
Merivale John Herman Poems Original and translated
(New York 1978) reprinr of the London edition of 1838
12 A telling anecdote in passing Tiger is also the nickname of
one ofJvomblys assistanrs in Gaeta who has a quite unproshy
nounceable Romanian name
to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Observation on the Laocoon
in Goethe on Art Selected edited and translated by John Gage
(BerkeleyLos Angeles 1980) pp 78-88 First published in
Propylaen ErsLcn Bandes erstes StLick (Weimar 1789)
14 Ibid p 80 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 92 (Tch mochte sagen wie sie jerzr
dasteht ist sie ein flxierrer Blitz eine Welle versteinerr im
Au gcnblicke da sie gegen das Ufer ansrromt)
15 Ibid p 86 German in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Dber Laokoon in Schriften z ur Kunst Pan One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 98 (doppelter Schmerz eine vergebshy
liche Ansrrengung ein hulfloser Zustand ein gewisser Unrershy
gang konnen nur Abscheu erregen wenn sie nicht ganz kalt
lassen)
16 Ibid p 80 Ccrman in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Cher Laokoon in Schriften zur Kunst Parr One (Munich
12) pp 88-99 p 91 (daIS die Gruppe des Laokoon
ein Muster sei von ~ymmetrie und j1annigfoltigkeit von Ruhe
und Bewegung von Gegensazen und Stuftngdngen die sich
zusammen teils sinnlich tcils geistig dem Beschauer darbieshy
ten bei dem hohen Pathos der Vorstellung eine angenehme
Empflndung erregen und den Scurm der Leiden und Leidenshy
schaft durch Anmut und Schdnheit mildern)
109
I
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
JOURNEY TO LEXINGTON Reinhold Baumstar
Anyone traveling to Lexington today a small pictureque town in West
Virginia is usually heading for Washington and Lee University or Virginia
Military Institute two time-honored educational insti tutions of national
repute Yet one may also visit Lexington as one might Urbina Nuremberg
Pieve di Cadore Seville or Leiden as a place en nob led by art hismry It was in
Lexington that Cy Twombly was born on 25 April 1928 Hnc he spent his
outh received his first influential art lessons and here at only eighteen he
created his earliest known sculptures And though in the early 1950s the artist
looked to New York and though in 1952 on a trip with Robert Rau5chenberg
to Italy Spain and Morocco he explored Mediterranean culture-whose
enchanting appeal affected his entire artistic life-Lexington at first remained
an indispensable home base Even after Cy Twombly moved to Italy in 1957
he created a series of ten large almost monochrome white paintings in
Lexington on a brief trip LO the United States in 1959 In later years however
the trips to his hometown are more sporadic and the catalogue raisonne lists no
ther works made in Lexington
It was no t until late in Iife having developed ~trong artistic roots in Rome
Bassano and Gaeta and having found the pulse of a Mediterranean biography
thereby opening up m an understanding of European intellectual history and
eventually having traveled the former territories of emperors Cyrus and
Alexander (after whom he named his son) only after all th is did he make
his way back home In 1992 he bought a house in Lexington and since then
has spent several months of the year working in Virginia as well He rented an
empty warehouse where in 1994 he finished his largest canvas begun 22
years earlier in Rome (and initially tided ArZtltomy ofMelancholy as a reference
to Robert Burtons 1621 book) a canvas later to be retitled in Lexington as Say
Goodbye Catullus to the Shores o(Asia Minor With its size of four by sixteen
meters and with its wealrh of references to Canlllus Rilke Seferis
131
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Archilochos Burton and Keats it is one of the ani ts most astoundi ng creashy
tions I n Lexington in the spring of 2001) Cy Twombly submitted to a yet
greater challenge by expanding hi monumental 12-part Lepanto serie - a
reflection on the hi tori cal victory of th fl et of the Holy League over the
Ottoman in 1571-tomake itapan ramaofh rror doom and death at ea
using a color palette hitherto unknown to his ceuvre By 1995 the now almost
seventy-year-old artist again took up the medium of sculpture in Lexington
the very place where he had cr ated his first These creations from his hand are
late works in the en e that they expre a ereniry and wisdom Unpubli hed
and with nlya mall selection having gone on public di play these work led
t the journeys undertaken by one passionate collect r one museum director
and one curator in the fall of 2004 and again by that collector and that mushy
seum direct r and a conservator in the spring of 2005 These were pilgrimages
to Virginia to Cy womblys Lexington
His studio in Lexington is rather inauspiciou As one tore among a r w Jt 1
located on a shopping uect in downtown Lexington The single-story buildshy
ing c n ists of just a medium- ized room and a small ne in the back The
facade is only a few meters wide and is divided between a slightly set back door
and a shop window Lowered blinds prevent glances inside There is no sign
no trademark no nameplate to rev al that in the midst of this small town busshy
tle there hides a celJ of creativity Pedestrians passing n the red briel sidewalk
will if at aU think of a temporarily closed store Fronl here it is but a brief
walk to the town m t important building and to Lexingtons greatest attracshy
tion the land cape surrounding it in a gentle embrace The hiUy Shenandoah
River Valley i framed to the East by the Blue Ridge Mountains and to the
We t by the still higher AppaIa hian Mountain Small settlements and om
red brick building with white wooden porches ar cattered across the fertile
farmland People have be n s ttling here for a long time and have witnessed
Arneri an hi tory in the making One of lhe building from the founding days
of the town is a wh itewa hed wooden tructure with Palladian double column
in the portico and a loggia on top-almost a fanners version of Palladios Villa
Cornaro Cy Twombly bought and briefly owned it (upon the ale f the
Lepanto eries) as if it were a declaration of love to his native Virginia He
speaks of her to his vi itors and take them t her ights to the Natural
Bridge one of the natural wonder f North America bought by homas
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Jefferson in 1774 from King Gorge III to open it to the public to the
Jeffer n Pools in Warm Spring the oldest extant bathhou e in the United
tates dating back to the year 1761 and t the elegant Homestead resort in
Hot Springs where the ani ts fath r Edwin Park r Twombly used to play golf
History in Lexington al 0 blend with the per nal Cy Twombly was born in
the home of Gen ral Thomas Stonewall Jackson lhat had then been convertshy
ed into a ho pital and tOday houses the museum devoted to this legendary
Confederate hero of the American Civil War Military tradition and a rich his shy
tOrical pa t form the fa cinating and ndearing setcing for life in Lexington
All thi is left behind upon crossing the threshold [0 Cy Twombls tudio It is
hard to imagine that in this small room all twelve of the monumental Lepanto
paintings were made Due (0 a lack of space the artist could only worl on
four pictur s at a time and hung a new canvas in front of a barely dried canvas
as soon as one wa finished Drips of dry paint arc still vi ible on the tudio
floor and in their unusual color scale they make reference to a surpri ing work
roce s Th is cell-like workplace is all (he ill r remarkable when rhe visi[Or
134
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
considers that Cy Twombly had to conceive of Illonulllental cOmpOSitIOnS
had to calculate the dimensions of the room-filling series and had to anticipate
the effect on spectators that is now governed by distance and a panorama view
More miraculous stiJ] is how Twombly in this small room and with closed
blinds (and therefore a limited view of the outside) managed to infuse
Mediterranean light into this work how his gaze seems to have been branded
by the view of Gaeta Bay and the Tyrrhenian Sea The humble place of origin
of one of the central works in his auvre confirms that Cy Twombly s an
thrives on an internal vision on concentrating on understanding what he
makes visible to the minds eye a process from which grows the precision of
spontanei ty In the midst of the bustle of Lexington the artists studio main shy
rains an almost monastic character
Likewise the three visitors to the studio in the fall of 2004 were unable t
directly view the process of creation in a second group of works that Cy
Twombly had crafted in this room consisting of approxinutely thirty sculp shy
tures Yet here traces ofhis work were even more visible than the pain t drips of
the Lepanto series Squeezed into this room the sculptures (some on the floor
orne on boxes or crates serving as bases) stood there in a panorama of perplexshy
ing variety The entire studio seemed to be an extension of the principle
underlying his sculpture namely forming various objets trouves into new units
and coating them with a wash of plaster and white paint in such a manner that
trickles smears and clumps create a play of vibrant frozen motion of light
and shadow Sculptures and the brie a brae of manual labor pots of paint
tubes brushes drawing utensils and containers took on the shape of a comshy
position with objets trou-vls from an active artists life while all of this seemed t
be transcended by the egalitarian light falling through the white blinds The
anarchic freedom of the sculptures effect in the midst of the studios profusion
seemed a refreshing contrast to the rank and file of the young cadets from the
Virginia Milicary Institute who parade each week in historical uniform on the
fIeld next to their university wh iJe the echo of cannons and brass music
resounds in the artists studio Next to the window as if on the threshold to
the outside world the room reveals a magical space Here sits the master here
he hordes books and leuers here he welcomes visitors for a chat This is where
we conversed about his art won his approval and trust conferred on the plan
to bring (he precious and fragile works to the A]te Pinakothek in Munich
135
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
From here Cy Twomblys eye faJIs on the small seemingly disorderly yet forceshy
ful army of his sculptures as though from a secr t command po t
By contrast the artists private home is a personal realm rarely entered by
strangers The red brick building with white wooden porches c nforms to the
traditional architecture of the South Inside reign an order detectible only to
the ho t a variery of collectors items prints hunting trophies and books piled
into overflowing helves stacked on tables chairs and the Hoor In th mid t
of this trea ure trove for the ye and the mind the incredible beauty of some of
his wn sculptures ennobled by their pure whit and enigmatic appearance
call for the visit rs attention The 1992 work created on Jupiter Island (with
the isles sand n its base and crowned by two alder leaves) rises high with truly
fulkean elegance to sustain in lofty heights the barely felt weight of the leaves
wi th a tender gesture as it stand out from the surrounding flood of objects as
an expression of the will to form Beside it towers the most powerful of all
sculptures in Cy TWOlublys auvre On a squar base he has placed three drum
segments narrowing at the top and forming a severely pr portioned pyramid
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
Since ancient times this has been the mark of any monument and the artist
puts this consensus to use when in inscriptions he dedicates the work to the
memory of Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sardanapal) who compiled in his
library at Nineveh the most important collection of Babylonian and Assyrian
literature Cy Twomblys erudition his penetrating of cultures his interest in
the empires of Cyrus and Alexander and moreover his knowledge and appro shy
priation of the poetics ofAncient times to our days that covers his auvre like a
closely knit imaginative net all this fuses into th is work to make it a mile shy
stone of his art In Cy Twonlblys home the monument recalling the memory
of a great bibliomaniac enters into a dialog with the stacks of books whence
the resident and artist draws his inspiration and knowledge finds the grai n
137
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139
froHi which) nurtured by his spontaneity his an constantly re-germinates In
an exhibition such as that at the Alte Pinakothek Cy Twomblys sculptures
will without doubt reveal their innate beauty but [he secret of their genesis
their fertilization by an expansive mind remains concealed in the studio in
the anists library Only with this revelation did the journey to LexingtOn turn
into a pilgrimage to Virginia ro the roots of Cy Twomblys art
139